Ruth Beitia wins historic high jump gold

With an immaculate high jump of 1.97 metres, Ruth Beitia has leapt into the history books by achieving the double - a first Olympic gold for herself and being the oldest Olympic champion in a jumping event.

The athlete quit four years ago after the biggest disappointment of her career in the 2012 London Olympics but returned to win bronze in the 2013 World Championships in Athletics.

Now she has added to her collection following her immaculate clearance.

Ramon Cid, director of Spanish Athletics, has put her success down to her happiness and certainly the sportswoman was all smiles as she entered the track, albeit somewhat wet from the afternoon's rain.

There was just 45 minutes before the competition began but she was already switched-on, waving to the stands where her trainer Ramon Torralbo was sitting.

Little did he realise that the Cantabrian was about to conquer the world on a day when Spain already had 13 medals on the 13th day of the competition.

The Spaniard opened the competition at 1.88m - a height which everyone passed.

She started to visualise the jump, moving the fingers on her right hand very quickly, while mentally preparing to clear the hurdle.

In 11 strides - two more than usual - she was faultless to stay in the race.

With the bar raised to 1.97m, there were only three rivals - Mirela Demireva of Bulgaria, Blanka Vlasic of Croatia and Chaunte Lowe of America.

She had a medal in her sights but the next jump would be two metres - a height which only the American and the German Marie-Laurence Jungfleisch had overcome in this unusual season.

Beitia missed all three attempts, although the second was very close, and sat on the bench to watch her rivals.

The Bulgarian failed, so she knew she had bronze, and looked emotional as she buried her face in her hands.

Then Vlasic and Lowe also failed to reach the mark, giving the gold to Spain.

It was reminiscent of when Sara Simeoni also failed to clear two metres but set a new Olympic record of 1.97m to win gold in Moscow.

Spain's female athletes have now won gold to add to the bronze which Maria Vasco won in 2000 as well as another Olympic title in athletics to add to those of Fermin Cacho and Daniel Plaza in Barcelona.